Birds and Birding

Two separate readers have emailed WC suggesting that a bird back in February was mis-identified. It would not, WC promises you, be the first time WC got a bird ID wrong. Or the last. Back on February 11, 2017, WC’s Bird of the Week called this a Baird’s Sandpiper. It’s not. In the face of…

Yes, WC has written earlier about the inexcusable evil that is Trap, Neuter and Return. But WC encountered a colony of these wretched animals at C.J. Strike Dam, on the Snake River, miles from any city or town. This particular colony colony of 12-15 cats subsists on handouts, rotten fish carcasses and, very likely, food…

A few weeks ago, when WC was doing the blog posts on bill deformities, a reader emailed asking whether researchers had tracked down the cause of the beak deformities that plague species like Black-capped Chickadees. WC wrote about the problem back in 2012. As this photo – taken in WC’s Fairbanks’ front yard – shows,…

Every birder has their favorite place to see birds. For WC, it’s the east end of the Denali Highway, Paxson to Crazy Notch. In early June, it’s about as good as North American birding gets. And stunningly beautiful scenery. Besides, it’s deep winter and WC can use a little bit of spring. Here are a…

WC suspects that Charles Darwin, wherever he is now, is smiling. The last few months have provided wonderful examples of evolution in action. Here are two. The Snail Kite is a threatened species. It’s primary prey is the native Apple Snail (Pomacea paludosa), but the Apple Snail is threatened by an invasive species of snail, the…

WC spent a few hours at Swan Falls Friday. That statement is a bit misleading. Swan Falls is long drowned behind Swan Falls Dam, the oldest dam on the Snake River. What’s left of the Snake River is the tail water below the dam, running through that big gorge. There’s a decent road running about…